Football legends Gordon Banks and Pele today waded into the Sepp Blatter slavery row – labelling the FIFA chief’s comments ‘nonsense’.
The World Cup winners were speaking at a press conference at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium on a day of events to honour goalkeeper Banks at the club where he became a hero.
FIFA president Blatter has claimed Cristiano Ronaldo should be allowed to leave Manchester United for Real Madrid if he wants, criticising a trend towards “modern slavery” in football.
But Banks today blasted back: “It’s absolute nonsense. Let’s say Tony Pulis (Stoke manager) signed three players on two or three year contracts and within two or three months they turned around and say they want to go.
“He has to get a team together to play for a season or two. You can’t have a player walking in and saying I want to leave whenever I want.
“He is on £140,000 a week and plays for a team that has just won the Premier League and Champions League, what more can he want?”
Pele added: “I think you are a slave when you work without a contract and pay.
“In any job when you have a contract you finish a contract and then you are free to go. In my time things were a little different.”
Pele is among a number of special guests celebrating Banks’s career with a statue of the keeper due to be unveiled this afternoon before a celebrity match.
The two have become good friends since Banks made what is described as the greatest save ever from a Pele header in the 1970 World Cup finals clash between England and Brazil.
Pele said: “I scored more than 1,000 goals in my career but the goal I didn’t score everyone talks about – but that is football.
“I had already jumped in the air thinking ‘goal’ and then I looked back. To me the ball was going in and then all of a sudden it wasn’t.”
Banks said today’s celebrations were perfectly timed with Stoke on the eve of their first ever season in the Premier League. But he warned that they and fellow new boys Albion will face a tough battle to survive.
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